Tomatoes & Beef

I love productive days.  Today it was productive because I managed to get caught up on most of my school work.  But I also got a bunch of cooking and baking done.

So, lets start with the cooking.  I am from a Sicilian/Irish family (with some other UK islands mixed in there).  Because of that, Italian was a staple in our house.  But since my gastric surgery, I don't really eat pasta, so Italian is rather non-existent.  I did, however, have a couple pounds of ground beef to use up and really had a taste for my mom's meat sauce, so I recreated it in my new crockpot.

Meaty Mushroom Spaghetti Sauce

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 8 oz sliced button mushrooms, roughly chopped
• 1 Tbsp mince garlic
• 2 lbs ground beef
• 1 (28-oz) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 (28-oz) can whole tomatoes, broken up
• 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium heat.  Add onions and cook until just translucent.  Add mushrooms and continue cooking until moisture is evaporated.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant.  Pour into crockpot.

Return pan to heat and saute beef, breaking up as cooking, until no longer pink.  Add this to the crock pot.  Add the tomatoes, seasonings and cheese.  Cover and cook for 6-8 hours on LOW.